It is difficult to determine the exact history of shoelaces. Archaeological records of footwear are rare because shoes were generally made of materials that deteriorated readily. The oldest piece of leather footwear in the world known to contemporary researchers is a 5,500-year-old leather shoe that was found in 2008 in a cave in Armenia. The shoes were bound with “shoelaces” made of lime bark string.
There are other documented examples of medieval footwear with shoelaces dating from as far back as the 12th century, which clearly show the lacing passing through a series of hooks or eyelets down the front or side of the shoe.
Many contemporary shoes still use shoelaces which enable a user to distribute the tension across the top of the foot. The free ends of the shoelaces are typically tied into a bow shaped knot. However, this type of shoe fastening has several drawbacks. One problem is that the bow knot will often become inadvertently loosened and untied when walking. Another drawback is that some elderly and physically impaired folks do not have the luxury of being able to bend over and tie their shoes. Some folks do not even have the required manual dexterity to tie a knot of any type. Many children are unable to tie the laces. Still other folks may only have one hand which would also greatly handicap them when attempting to tie laced shoes. There are many lace winding mechanisms in the prior art but none are easily used by a handicapped person. The same problems hold true for some orthotic and prosthetic devices that require laces to be tightened.